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WRENTHAM - The sophisticated, potentially-potent spread offense that the Franklin High football team has gotten down to a science can be, and has been, hard for opposing defenses to stop ... but it's pretty useless standing on the sidelines.

That was the case Thursday morning as King Philip held the Panther offense under wraps for the better part of three quarters, then put the game out of reach with an impressive, 24-play drive bridging the third and fourth quarters that not only ate up more than 11 minutes of clock and kept Franklin's offense off the field, but led to the game-clinching touchdown in a 22-12 Warrior victory.

It was much more than just a King Philip win in the 49-year storied rivalry between the two teams. Granted, it did snap Franklin's four-year, Thanksgiving Day winning streak and it did narrow Franklin's overall series lead to 30-18-1, but more importantly it signified quite a turnaround for the Warriors, who went from 2-9 a year ago to 9-2 this season - the nine wins the most by any KP football team ever.

The Warriors also ended up 6-2 in the Hockomock League, good for third place. And with a team full of juniors, have the Warriors arrived as major players in the league for seasons to come?

"Honestly, it was a surprising year. To go from 2-9, and to have a lot of young guys and do this," King Philip coach Brian Lee said. "But that's what happens when you work hard and believe. I have seven seniors with me now who were with me as freshmen when I first got to KP, and they stuck it out and were really willing to commit themselves. Those are the guys I'm really happy for." King Philip's only two losses this season were to eventual Hockomock champion Mansfield - a game the Warriors were down just 12-7 at the half before falling 32-7 - and North Attleboro - a game the Warriors actually led 17-0 at halftime. So there's no question the Warriors belong when it comes to talking about the top teams in the Hockomock.

Franklin had hoped to join that conversation as well, the Panthers also losing close games to Mansfield and North and a non-leaguer to a nine-win Attleboro team in the season opener. But Franklin could generate next to nothing offensively in the second half of Thursday's game, much to the dismay of coach Brad Sidwell.

"They out-physicalled us," said Sidwell, whose team finishes at 7-4. "Offensively, they did what they needed to do to keep their drives alive and they had a couple of big plays that hurt us."

After a wild second quarter that saw the teams combine for four touchdowns and 25 points, Franklin went three-and-out on its first two possessions of the second half, and King Philip had no luck either, having a fake punt snuffed out.

Then King Philip put together a drive for the ages, probably their best of the season.

Starting at their own 17-yard line with a little over five minutes left in the third quarter, the Warriors drove the 83 yards on 24 plays - all but two of them running plays - and ate up over 11 minutes of clock. Chris Cacciola capped the drive with a 2-yard touchdown run, making it a 10-point lead and giving Franklin less than six minutes to work with.

KP quarterback Brandon Howard, the Offensive Player of the Year in the Hockomock, engineered the drive but was more effective running the ball than throwing it. Twice he had straight-ahead runs to convert key third- and fourth-down plays. He also had a hookup with Mike Cochrane for seven yards on third-and-long.

KP converted three third downs and was 2-for-2 on fourth down plays on the drive, the biggest a fake punt by Cochrane on a fourth-and-4 play from the King Philip 36. Cochrane appeared to get a favorable spot along the KP sideline as he was pushed out of bounds right near the sticks.

"That wasn't my call. Mike did that on his own and he's fortunate he made it ... I told him later that if he didn't make it I was going to kill him," joked Lee, who had already had two fake punts go awry in the game.

"But our line did a great job on that drive," added Lee, noting the play of sophomore starter Matt Jones. "Franklin's defense makes you earn everything and we had to get the yards a couple at a time to keep the drive going. And that's another thing about (Howard), to have a 240-pound quarterback, you can use him in short-yardage situations. Funny how he can have six touchdowns and put up 56 points last week (in beating Foxboro) and then have a game like this where it's more important to get two or three yards on the ground." Franklin quarterback Nick Colson, who had a pair of second-quarter touchdown passes to give Franklin leads of 6-3 and 12-10, was forced to the air with the Panthers down 10 points and only 5:46 left. He completed one pass for 15 yards then ran an option for 12 yards to keep Franklin's drive alive. A couple of pass interference penalties flagged on KP got Franklin all the way down to the Warrior 9-yard line, but a circus interception by Matt Monahan in the end zone sealed the victory for KP.

"Sure it was frustrating not to be able to get our defense off the field. You have to give KP credit for the way they moved the ball. It wasn't anything we weren't prepared for, we had eight guys in the box we just had a hard time stopping them," said Sidwell.

Neither defense did much stopping in the second quarter as they exchanged two touchdowns apiece.

Franklin scored on the first play of the second quarter, a nice slant pass over the middle from Colson to Greg Dellorco, the 11-yard strike making it 6-3. Howard answered with an inside screen to Cochrane, and Cochrane did the rest, going 44 yards for a touchdown on the third-and-13 play.

King Philip attempted an onside kick, the ball barely making it to midfield and giving Franklin prime field position. Colson later found Sam Scoba wide open over the middle for a 42-yard touchdown pass to make it 12-10 Panthers. But KP took the lead a little more than a minute later when Ryan Connolly broke a TD down the left sideline 39 yards, that set up by Chris Cacciola's 38-yard run.

King Philip had opened the scoring with 1:04 left in the first quarter, a 21-yard field goal by Jake Cintolo. The Warriors were in position to score on their first possession but Franklin's Mike McGowan recovered a fumble after KP had driven to the Franklin 16.

Connolly (90 yards) and Cacciola (98) packed quite a 1-2 punch out of the KP backfield as the Warriors had 234 yards on the ground. Howard ended up with 127 yards passing on the day while Cochrane earned King Philip MVP honors.

For Franklin, Colson had 128 yards passing but was picked off twice. Dellorco earned MVP honors.